Mistakes matter which has cost me dearly.

Mistakes matter even during adversity.

Is everything going to be okay? It depends on how many mistakes you make and what you learn from them. Inaction does not lead to everything being OK. If it’s not the drought, floods or fire, or something out of the blue, like the COVID virus, it will cause you to make mistakes.

When you think everything will be how it was and how you expected it to be, think again. The answer is no, and it always has been. If you believe everything will be how it will be, then the answer is yes.

So, if everything is how it is, your next question should be, “What will you do about it?”

Here are some mistakes that have cost me dearly over the years.

• Doing it alone while leaning too heavily on my understanding.
• I failed to put structure into what I was trying to do.
• Trusting what people say, not looking closely at their values.
• I listen to other people’s opinions and do not trust my gut feelings.
• I became too complacent when things were going well.
• I am reinvesting profits when I should have been diversifying income.
• Many times, I did not work to my strengths.
• I was overextending by trying too hard to do too many things simultaneously.
• Employing people based on credentials, not personality.
• Not maintaining my ‘think big’ attitude.
• I procrastinated when I should have been taking more decisive action.
• I stopped becoming a ‘finisher’.

If you’re not making simple mistakes, progress will be slow. If you are not making mistakes, you aren’t trying hard enough. Many people could do better if they learned from their mistakes and weren’t so busy trying to justify them or playing the blame game.

People today learn and make purchases differently than a few short years ago. So, businesses, non-profits, and all marketers need to adapt or risk failure, which they may not recover from.

Helping people understand enterprises’ change and move forward as customer and stakeholder expectations change. Continuing to do the same old things only leads to stagnation and eventual failure.

People achieve because of their struggles. If you learn from your mistakes and failures and learn to seek advice to overcome the obstacles along the way, you, too, will become a winner.

Quotable Quotes

“Learn from your mistakes, and let painful experiences mould your future trajectory”. Peter Sergeant

“Your best opportunities often come after your mistakes and failures, as long as you learn from them and have good systems, tools and processes in place”. Peter Sergeant